Allow more than 2 simultaneous downloads in Internet explorer

This is to increase the the number of max downloads to 10.

1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

2. Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Internet Settings

3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value (a dword) , and then add the following registry values:

“MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server”=Dword:0000000a
“MaxConnectionsPerServer”=Dword:0000000a

4. Quit Registry Editor.

Allowing Network Access with Blank Passwords (XP and Vista)

Although you can log in locally without a password, by default, WindowsXP Pro does not allow network users to access the computer without a password. Typically you will receive an Unknown error 31 if this is the case.
To change this setting:

Run gpedit.msc

Go to Computer Configuration / Windows Settings / Security Settings / Local Policies / Security Options

Double click on Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console login only
Disable this option

Add Your Location Automatically to Your Gmail Signature

An exciting new feature has been added to Gmail Labs is “Location in Signature”. Just enable this lab feature and Gmail will automatically append your current location (the city and the country name) to your Gmail signature, like this:

Note that this feature uses public IP address to identify your current location, so it may be inaccurate sometimes or may slightly vary.

Here is the step by step procedure to turn on this feature-

1. Log into your Gmail inbox.

2. Go to Settings -> Labs and scroll down a bit to locate the “Location in Signature” feature.

3. Check the Enable radio button to enable this feature and click on save changes.

4. Now go to Settings -> General and go to the signature settings. Check Append your location

That’s it. Now your signature will always contain your current location. As this feature uses your IP address, guess you must have understood how exactly this feature works. It tracks the location of your IP and appends the same location as your “location signature” and hence, as said earlier, your location may vary slightly.

How to convert a FAT partition to NTFS

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt. In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS. Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.


NOTE:=
Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command

Check Personal Firewall Status

How can you check the status of the connection and the firewall? Simply open Control Panel from the Start Menu, open Internet and Network Connections, then Network Connections. By default the view is of large icons.

Click the View Menu, and choose "details" in order to reveal several more columns of information about the connections that your computer has. Check the Status column to see if your connection is currently connected, and whether or not it is "firewalled." You can even drag the column headings around (I like to slide the Status column right next to the Name column. You can even remove entire columns by right-clicking the column heading and unchecking it.

Disable CD Autorun

( WinXP PRO Only)

1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC

2) Go to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, System.

3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off and modify it as you desire.

Changing the Location Of Special Folders

You can modify the registry to change the location of special folders like:

My Documents
Favorites
My Pictures
Personal
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Double click on any locations you want to change and alter the path
Logoff or restart for the changes to go into effect

Note: TweakUI from Microsoft will allow you to make these changes from a dialog box as well.